Alonso cautious despite 34-point lead at halfway point of F1 season

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However, Alonso remains cautious about his title prospects, given that Ferrari has yet to definitively prove it has the fastest car in dry conditions.

“I think before coming here we were not sure about the performance of the car,” said Alonso. “It's true that we were OK in Valencia, but Red Bull was quicker than anybody there. But we took advantage of the mechanical problem that Sebastian [Vettel] had in Valencia and we won the race there.

“In Silverstone, we were OK in wet conditions but a little bit slower than Red Bull in dry conditions and Mark [Webber] won the race and he deserved it, because he was the quickest. Yesterday, OK, we set pole in wet conditions again which seems to suit our car but in the dry, we again saw that we are still not the quickest. Sebastian and Jenson [Button] put a lot of pressure on us; also [Lewis] Hamilton was extremely quick but he had some problems in the race.

“It's halfway through the season. We made a very good recovery when you think of where we started in the Jerez test, where we were maybe two seconds off the pace. In Australia we were 1.6 seconds [off] in Q2, and now we are very happy with the points that we have achieved in the first half, but it means nothing, because there are still another 10 races in which we need to improve the car.

“We need to be consistent and we need to keep finishing all the races. One or two drivers always don't finish the race because of mechanical problems or incidents or something, so we need to avoid these problems.”

Alonso is hopeful of another good performance next weekend in Budapest, where he scored his first win in 2003.

“Well, it's going to be tight again. It's a very short circuit in Hungary again, and as we saw this year, in two- or three-tenths there are eight, nine cars. In Hungary we need to make a perfect preparation again, a perfect qualifying, because you can be starting in 12th or 13th if you make a little mistake. So we need to approach the race in the same way we did the last couple of races, try to maximize what we have in Hungary and hopefully bring in some new parts that can help us in that circuit.

“I think at the moment the car seems OK in all areas, there [are] not weak points, as maybe we had at the beginning of the season, that we were suffering a little bit on traction and top speed. Now I think that we are OK on that. In Hungary, I think with these slow-speed corners, traction etc., I don't see any problem with the car and we should be competitive there.”